Video Game Music

[Dagger Dias]

Final Fantasy 8 - Silence & Motion

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This lovely piece of music plays in the city of Esthar of Final Fantasy 8. Esthar is a very unique city, far more different than any other town in the game. It's one of my favorite towns to visit in the game and part of the reason is the music, which sets it further apart from the rest of the game's world. This is one of those tracks that helps show you that you're in an unfamiliar region the moment you step into it and the track begins playing. It's also a good one to listen to while contemplating myriads of random thoughts with your eyes shut while relaxing on the couch.

[Alexrovers]

The music on Fifa always surprises me. I start by not liking anything on it and eventually grow to like it. It has got to be one of the top things about playing fifa and xbox

[Dagger Dias]

My nostalgia for Donkey Kong Country 2 continues. I ranked the DKC series in the video game series ranking thread and I've still feeling nostalgic about DKC2 this week, so here comes a track from it.

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This is the track that plays in the infamous bramble levels of Donkey Kong Country 2. I have mixed feelings about it. While it's beautiful and a very pretty piece of music.... It's used in levels that were so hard that they still haunt me to this day. The bramble levels were a nightmare to get through, especially Bramble Scramble in the fourth world. It is a track I can look back on fondly despite the difficulty of the levels it's used in though. It's almost as if it was intended to calm down the frustrated gamers who struggled to make it through the levels it plays in. As tough as those levels were, we got to listen to this song while we made our way through them at least.

[Dagger Dias]

This week I bring a set of tracks from an old racing game classic, Top Gear 2.


Top Gear 2: Auckland

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Top Gear 2: Ayers Rock

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Top Gear 2: Canterbury Plains

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There were three different racing tracks. The first place you hear track 1 is Auckland, the first of track 2 is Ayers Rock, and the first for track 3 is Canterbury Plains. After that they rotate in the same order throughout the whole game, with the Aukland theme playing one last time in the final level. They remain among my favorite racing themes to this day 20 years later, even topping stuff from the Mario Kart games. I've always liked the 2nd and 3rd tracks while it took the 1st track several years to finally grow on me. They are good driving tracks to listen to while behind the wheel in real life too. Each of the three make the races more enjoyable as they just fit so well with cruising around and enjoying the scenery, despite being heard during the entirety of gameplay other than when you are buying stuff in between races. They don't get old like a lot of tracks from games around that time do.

[Rellim]

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Now, I'll be honest, I hated this game. Its in my opinion the worst final fantasy game in the series, and since Final Fantasy is my favorite games series of all time, thats hard for me to say, lol. But this track, which plays in a ruined hometown of Vanille, is a beautiful song that fits the scene perfectly. You really feel the sadness of this town being taken.

[Dagger Dias]

Tales of Symphonia - Water Symphony (Despair)

I've already talked about Water Symphony before, but it contains a sad remix that I have not mentioned and I was thinking about it earlier. Here's the original version first for those who have not heard it or do not remember:

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A beautiful track for a beautiful town. I love this track.

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Now, here is the one from when you return to see that the town got destroyed. The best part about it is how it retained elements of the original, only it sounds sad to fit the situation. You can tell that you're in the same town with a much more depressed tone overall. I wish more games did their soundtracks that way.